Running and Yoga or Yoga and Running, no matter the order and your preference are both among the two most popular sport activities in many countries.

Personally I am doing more running than yoga, but not too say I am not doing yoga at all. I think yoga more as a complementary stretching activity after my runs to keep my body muscles flexible in and in shape. Here is what I think why:

• Stretching:  extremely important as you grow older. If you don’t do that, you feels your legs like to piece of woods and heavy to carry
• Breathing: yoga teaches you to breathe properly during various posture. Optimal breathing is obviously also a keep element of running efficiently (and even more important if you are a long distance runner)
• Positive long term visualization: yoga helps you to focus on the present, on the now, the current and at the same time helps to create a positive visualization of yourself now and in the future. During long running, you tend to forget that and focus on the current pace and pain. However with good mindset changes and visualization, you are looking into the future you and it enables you to carry on, one step after another
• Running = Body vs Yoga=Mind: Sounds cliché but there is a truth in this, even some popular brand like Asics (which stands for Anima Sana In Corpus Sano) were built around this conceptand much more…here is a good picture

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